[2] The name of Lake Mariout derives from the Hellenized name of Mareotis (Ancient Greek: Μαρεῶτις) or Marea, by which it was known in the Ptolemaic Period.

[1] In antiquity, the lake was much larger than it is now, extending further to the south and west and occupying around 700 square kilometres (270 sq mi).

[5] The salt-water flood also destroyed 150 villages[4] while refilling Lake Mariout so that it suddenly regained its ancient area and became too shallow for navigation.

[8] The seaside town of Abusir, known in the Graeco-Roman period as Taposiris Magna, lies on the shore of Lake Mariout.

[9][10][11] The De Vita Contemplativa, a description of a society of ascetics written in the first century CE, says that the community of cenobitic monastics called the Therapeutae were widely distributed in the ancient world, but that "their country" was "beyond the Maereotic lake".

It has had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank:[13] In 2015 a stele, resembling the Rosetta Stone and dating back some 2200 years, was discovered in the Taposiris Magna Temple site at Lake Mariout.